Resting units with lying surfaces for persons come in different shapes for daily use. As a result, the resting units, such as, for example, a mattress, cushion, recliner, couch, ottoman as well as a bed, box spring bed, sofa, divan, allow a person to assume an approximately horizontal or slightly oblique position in order to relax. In this respect it is often desired that the lying surface of the resting unit be adjusted to the individual physical body parameters, for example, the weight and height, of the person resting thereon.
To this end the lying comfort is usually determined by the person in his private life by selecting a resting unit that is constructed in such a way that its resilience is perceived to be comfortable. For this purpose, mattresses are available in varying degrees of firmness, which can be customized by selecting the upholstery materials, which are used in each case, and the design of the internal construction as early as during production. However, such a customized mattress is less suitable or not suitable at all for other persons having different body parameters.
Thus, it is increasingly desired that the lying and/or sitting surface of a resting unit can be custom adjusted by any person resting thereon to his physical body parameters, such as, for example, weight and height, and, if necessary, can be readjusted at any time. To this end, resting units may be equipped with actuators, which can be manually operated or can be controlled by motor drive and which allow, for example, a height and angle adjustment of the entire lying surface or partial zones thereof, for example, in the area of the head, back, pelvis, leg and foot. Thus, it is possible for a person to be able to adjust and, if necessary, to readjust a custom height profile of the lying surface, in particular, as a function of the current subjective lying sensation. With such controllable actuators, it is also possible to adjust the penetration depth of a person or parts of his body, resting on a lying surface, i.e., the firmness or resilience of the lying surface or subzones thereof.
Depending on the type of construction of the respective resting unit, a wide variety of designs are known. Thus, the actuators, acting on the lying and/or sitting surface of the resting unit, may represent, for example, electric drives, which actuate lever mechanisms and worm drives below or in the lying surface. One example thereof is a motor frame, which is used as an adjustable spring suspension underneath a mattress that is placed thereon. The actuators can also represent, for example, pumps, which act on bag-shaped or tube-shaped hollow spaces in the lying and/or sitting surface of a resting unit and which allow a charging or discharging with compressed air or water.
Furthermore, actuators can also generate positioning forces by using other physical principles, for example, using electrostriction or magnetic fields. Furthermore, cable pull systems are also known, by which surface regions, which are located in or below a mattress, may be tightened or loosened via actuators. The devices, mentioned herein, for actuator-controlled adjustment of a height and/or firmness profile in a lying and/or sitting surface are presented merely as examples. Depending on the structural design of the respective resting unit, any device of this kind can also be used in combination in the present invention.
A popular design for such a resting unit is, for example, a bed frame, into which an adjustable slat support with a mattress thereon are inserted. In the case of such a slat support, for example, a back region, pelvic region and foot region, or even individual slats may be designed in such a manner that the height and/or angle can be adjusted. In addition, it may also be possible to adjust dynamically the flexibility of the individual slats and groups of slats. The height and/or firmness profile in and along the lying and/or sitting surface of the mattress, which is usually flexible, can be custom adjusted with such a slat support, which acts as a kind of adjustable spring suspension, by a person with respect to the physical characteristics of the body and the current needs. An adjustable spring suspension of this type may also have, for example, a checkerboard-like pattern of individually controllable surface elements.
Furthermore, adjustable mattresses are known, which are equipped directly with controllable actuators. These actuators may have hollow spaces, which can be supplied, for example, with adjustable compressed air in order to influence the height and/or firmness profile of the lying and/or sitting surface. There also exist mattresses, which are equipped with adjustable lashing elements, in order to be able to adjust the tensile stress in the lying surface zone by zone. Specific combinations of bed frame or bed box with lying cushions, which are placed thereon and which are equipped with or have a variety of setting and adjustment options, are also called box spring beds.
The adjustment of the height and/or firmness profile of the lying surface of a resting unit is made by a person resting thereon in accordance with his personal requirements. For this purpose the available controllable actuators are actuated by the person until a setting of the respective resting unit has been found that is currently subjectively satisfactory. It is also known to save the personal settings, which have been found manually and experimentally in this way, in an electronic device and, if need be, to activate these settings again. Although resting units of this type can be custom parameterized by any person for the respective desired or required lying conditions, there is the drawback, however, that a body-specific setting has to be sought again by each person and can only thereafter be saved using data technology in an electronic device.
The prior art document DE 10 2014 112 548 A1 discloses a work station chair system, which includes sensor devices to determine the positions of elements of the work station chair and the sitting posture of a user and to derive a position signal. A computing unit generates a feedback signal from the position signal. This feedback signal includes suggestions for possible modifications of the elements of the work station chair and the sitting posture of the user.
In response to the display of the feedback signal, the user can actuate the adjustment mechanisms, in order to change elements of the work station chair. Said user can also assume an ergonomically improved sitting posture. The computing unit can derive the feedback signal from a comparison of ergonomic data with reference data, in particular, the physical characteristics of the user. To this end, information about the user's body structure and clothing size can be used. Therefore, a monitoring and messaging system is described that assists a user in finding in an iterative manner an optimal seat setting or, more specifically, seat position.